Texas Rangers Blog

Washington nearing decisions on American League All-Star rosters

On-line voting for the All-Star Game ended on Thursday night. Results from the manager-coach-player voting are in house. That allows Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington to enter the final stage of filling out the American League All-Star team.

The fan voting determines the nine position-player starters, including designated hitter. The manager-coach-player voting will determine a backup at each spot other than pitcher along with eight pitchers: five starters and three backups. The final spot on the 34-man team will be determined by on-line voting among five candidates determined by Washington.

Washington will have seven choices. If form holds, he will have to use four of the picks to get the mandatory representative from clubs ignored in the voting. A year ago, the spurned four clubs were Baltimore, Kansas City, Minnesota and Oakland. Seattle could replace Baltimore, which has a strong candidate in closer Jim Johnson.

That would leave three wild-card picks again for Washington. A year ago, he had three choices and used each on a pitcher: Detroit closer Jose Valverde, Tampa Bay starter David Price and C.J. Wilson, then with the Rangers.